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The Help dominates Screen Actors Guild Awards

Viola Davis (in photo) won Best Actress for The Help in the Screen Actors Guild Awards. The Help also won Best Supporting Actress for Octavia Spencer and Best Ensemble.

The Help won three prizes at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards last night (January 29).

The stars of the drama—about the lives of housekeepers in the 1960s deep south—won Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Cast at the event at the Shrine Exposition Center in Los Angeles.

Viola Davis, who picked up the Best Actress prize, admitted she was "so proud" to be honored for her portrayal of Aibileen Clark in the Tate Taylor-directed film.

Speaking to the audience, she said: "There’s so many people involved in The Help, and in lieu of mentioning all of them, I just have to say that what is there but a dream? You can’t trade in your dream for another dream. I am so proud to be an actor. I thank the Screen Actors Guild for this award."

Best Supporting Actress winner Octavia Spencer added she hoped the film gave people a "voice."

She said: "Thank you for putting me in a category with so many beautiful women that I know and love. I have to say that it was really a privilege to work on a film that gave a voice to so many women who made it possible for me to be standing here tonight.

"These women represented our mothers and grandmothers, and it was their courage and them facing the challenges that they faced every day in living their life in dignity and grace. And I thank you."

Frenchman Jean Dujardin picked up the Best Actor prize for his performance in silent movie The Artist, while veteran actor Christopher Plummer won the Best Supporting Actor gong for Beginners.

Addressing the star-studded crowd, Plummer said: "I just can’t tell you what fun I’ve had being a member of the world’s second oldest profession."

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 received the prize for Best Stunt Ensemble in the film category.

Winners in the TV category included Paul Giamatti for Best Actor in a Movie or Miniseries for Too Big To Fail and Kate Winslet for her turn in Mildred Pierce, for which she also won a Golden Globe earlier this month.

Full list of winners at the 18th annual Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards: